Information Studies Student Develops Twitter Bot

Kenneth Frimpong, a final year student in the Department of Information Studies, College of Education, has developed a bot on Twitter named Ghana Information Hub that automatically calculates and retweets the levy one has to pay on electronic funds transfers.

According to Kenneth, the idea was developed while studying Programming of Information Centre Application, a course taught by Dr. Karim Awudu, a Lecturer at the Department of Information Studies. He stated that, he gained experience in coding using Python programming language while studying the course. His zeal for learning to programme in Python was heightened when the Lecturerintroduced them to practical coding, demystified computer programming and assured the class that the course could land them a job in the technology industry.

As part of the course, students developed applications as final projects which constituted 30% of their assessment. This among other things helped him gain practical skills and encouraged him to continuously explore and apply his skills in programming which eventually led to designing and rolling out this e-levy calculator on Twitter.

Explaining how the bot works, Kenneth stated that one has to sign up or log in to a Twitter account and tweet “@ghanainfohub how much e-levy do I have to pay on an amount of money” (for instance: GHC1000.00). The individual then receives the retweet, “You will pay GHC15.00 on GHC1000.00”. The Twitter user receives the response in less than a minute and this service is available, 24hours every day of the week.

The electronic transactions levy was introduced in Ghana on 1st May, 2022, as a tax on all electronic mobile money transfers expect those excluded by law. Twenty-four (24) days later, Kenneth introduced the bot on Twitter, to serve the purpose of informing people on how much e-levy they will have to pay on a transaction.

Currently, he is working on developing more features on the bot to provide up-to-date information on job openings, current affairs, weather conditions, and prices of fuel and currencies. He hopes to design more bots on other applications such as WhatsApp, Facebook, and other social media platforms. He is also looking at enhancing access to information on health-related issues as well as in the social and business field to reflect the name of the Ghana Information Hub.

Kenneth in a pose with his Lecturer, Dr. Karim Awudu

Dr. Karim Awudu, the lecturer of the Course, Programming of Information Application, said, “Iam excited to see my students, especially Kenneth applying the skills and knowledge acquired from the course to provide real-life information solutions.’’He noted that the course is increasingly becoming attractive to students due mainly to his teaching strategy and the objectives he has set to ensure that computer programming is demystified and made interesting to Information Studies students through practical coding. “My students have developed various applications and Kenneth’s project is one of the best. We are working on other projects as well and I wish him well. The sky is the limit”, he added.

Updates on the bot are available on Kenneth’s Twitter handle @ghanainfohub.